Well, I live in the Eastern Suburbs about an hour out of Melbourne, Australia.
Whether is a ***** here. Melbourne whether is 4 seasons in one day, or one really extreme season if you're not lucky. Days go from sunny to rainy to both in a matter of hours at times. Its a generally warm place, with temperatures having dropped below 0' during winter maybe three times in the last few years, and in summer it gets to over 40 quite easily [Obviously celsius temperatures], which makes the hour drive to Phillip Island for surfing and sailing worth it, as well as the pool in the backyard.
The area that I live is one of the nice estates of the suburb, which is a mildly respectable suburb. It has some nice estates, but its right next to several suburbs that have rather poor reputations. Police used to patrol the high school here 'cause of bad behaviour, our neighbouring suburbs are the places you're told not to travel alone through, and never at night, and the people from such places generally end up flooding our local shopping centres, which drags the suburbs reputation down a bit.
Outside of that there's not much to say about the suburbs. Its general suburb life. Not a lot of culture 'cause the houses have been around maybe 20 years, no major tourist attractions, just plain, ordinary houses and people. I guess I could go into the 'Australian way of life' or W/E, but that's not really relevant as everyone here is different. We've got the heavy racists and xenophobes, we've got your stereotypical old men who cook a barbie and drink beers on the veranda, less than an hour away there's friends of mine who live and work on farms, we've got the rich upperclass snobs, and those who have money but don't flaunt it or do much with it. Religion really isn't a major player, at least around here, with anyone who does believe having the common sense not to try and convert those who don't, and not treating the bible like its a true historical text, but instead working off the messages it teaches and believing in god. People like that around here are, more often than not, either of Italian descent, grandparents, or people who've moved here from overseas, with most other people simply not believing, and not even caring about religion in general. Of course there are exceptions, and elsewhere in the country things are very different.
The neighbourhoods I've lived in have been kind of close, but not really. We all know each other, we all talk occasionally, and when door knockers come around, a call goes out so we all know to pretend we're not home, but we generally keep to ourselves and don't interact a lot. BBQs that are hosted are generally either because its dinner time, and people are hungry and have meat to cook on a BBQ, and just turn into a normal family dinner with no guests, or between close family and friends who get invited over for some special occasion. There is one family in the street who does host BBQ parties for the street a couple of times a year, but they're generally the exception.
drummodino said:
Also there isn't really a lot to do here when compared to the bigger cities of Melbourne and Sydney.
Hehe, I wouldn't say there's a ton to do here either really. Sydney has most of it, or Brisbane thanks to its proximity to the Gold Coast.
Could just be 'cause I'm a local and don't really look at any of that touristy crap here though.
Whats amazing is that Bath is only so big, so there is a decent chance we have passed each other at some point 
